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Facebook: Obama Death Poll, User-Generated Apps

The US Secret Service is investigating a poll posted on social networking site Facebook, asking people if they think President Obama “should be killed”. The poll, posted on Saturday, was taken off the site as soon as the company was made aware of it. It was put up on the site using a third-party application that was unconnected with the social networking site itself. US Officials will take “the appropriate investigative steps,” a spokesman said. The poll, described by Facebook as “offensive”, asked respondents “Should Obama be killed?” and offered four possible responses: “No”, “Maybe”, “Yes”, and “Yes if he cuts my health care”.

AppBank, a Seattle-based startup, today is launching a free application in beta that lets people without coding skills build their own Facebook apps, such as a quiz or game, in four steps — and earn a cut of the revenue from ads placed within them. The company provides a database of statistics and tutorials on its web site to help people manage and modify their applications in order to attract users and ultimately, pocket more cash.